he was the apple of their eye, quite an interesting little character, according to her letters. and they were devastated by his death and jane was in mourning quite a long time over frankie's death. >> i think a big house especially with only one child now was too much for jane to take care of. i don't think she was interested in housekeeping particularly. i think she just wasn't capable of taking care of a house. pierce went off to fight in the mexican war in 1847 and they sold the house when he came back in 1848 and then they lived in a boarding house again in concord and lived in a boarding situation for the rest of their lives. >> we return to washington and the story of the white house because a fairly amazing thing, at least to my ears, seemed to happen which is two years into this darkness and mourning and reclusive life on the second floor of the white house, she comes out of it. how did that happen and what was this new jane pierce like? >> it happened because that was the end of the mourning period. normally, as i said earlier, it would have been just 12 months mournin